A small, needle-like anatomical structure, such as a thin appendage or hair-like projection found in animals or plants.
From Latin 'acicula' (small needle), diminutive of 'acus' (needle). This term entered biological and anatomical vocabulary to describe fine, pointed structures too small for ordinary descriptive words.
Plants and insects evolved needle-like aciculae for wildly different reasons—plants use them for water conservation while insects use them for sensing, showing how evolution finds the same shape for opposite problems.
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